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V 


JfaBrirult  of  the  Memorial  Symposium 
of  the  Class  of  Yale  1852,  Academic, 
held  on  their  Classmate    ^    ^    ^    ^ 

iattt^l  Olott  Cl^ttman 

WHO    DIED    OCTOBER    13,     1908 


Of 

■JfORHM 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  CLASS 

Hon.  W.  W.  CRAPO,  "President 
NEW  BEDFORD.  MASS. 


1852  YALE.    ACADEMIC 


Directory,  August  28,  1909 


Rev.  J.  F.  Bingham,  D.D.,  L.H.D.,  Hartford,  Conn. 

Edward  Buck,  Bucksport,  Me. 

Hon.  W.  W.  Crapo,  LL.D.,  President,  New  Bedford,  Mass. 

G.  W.  Gurtiss,  155  Seminary  Ave.,  Ghicago,  III. 

Prof.  Ephraim  Gutter,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  Secretary, 

251  W.  81st  Street,  New  York,  or  West  Falmouth,  Mass. 
J.  G.  Dubois,  M.D.,  Treasurer,  Hudson,  N.  Y. 
G.  A.  Griswold,  M.D.,  Fulton,  III. 
Edward  Houghton,  Lancaster,  Mass. 

Prof.  G.  E.  Jackson,  LL.D.,  4400  Morgan  St.,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 
Prof.  W.  A.  Reynolds,  6  Northumberland  Place,  Bayswater, 

London,  W.,  England. 
Prof.  Homer  B.  Sprague,  Ph.D.,  Los  Angeles,  Gal. 
G.  A.  Wilcox,  University  Glub,  New  York;   also  Oakledge, 

Madison,  Gonn. 


PREFACE 

It  has  seemed  best  to  the  Secretary  also  to  use  epistles  as 
best  showing  the  personalities  of  the  writers'  characters. 

As  to  the  fasciculi  outside  of  the  class,  the  Secretary  takes 
the  responsibility.  If  Drs.  Eliot  and  White  were  Oilman's 
only  peers,  he  thinks  they  should  be  at  home  with  Yale  1852, 
while  the  Johns  Hopkins  treasurer's  words  as  to  Johns  Hopkins 
are  in  place  as  the  monetary  foundation  of  our  beloved  class- 
mate's successful  world-wide  career. 

EPHRAIM  GUTTER. 


West  Falmouth,  Mass. 
August  27,  1909. 


189il(i 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.  Contribution  of  President  Crapo 7 

II.  Letter  from  Hon.  W.  M.  Stewart 10 

III.  Contribution  by  Dr.  Sprague 11 

IV.  Letter  of  G.  A.  Wilcox,  Esq 20 

V.  Letter  of  Ex-President  Eliot 22 

VI.  Letter  of  Ex-President  White 23 

VII.  Letter  of  J.  C.  Thomas,  Treasurer  of  Johns  j  .       .^  ,  / 

Hopkins  Untyjrstt^y 25  fi^/}l  J ^ 

VIII.  Quotation  from  Dr.  W.  Osler 27 

IX.  Contribution  by  the  Secretary,  Yale  1852    .    ,  28 


Fasciculus  I 

At  the  stated  monthly  meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Histori- 
cal Society,  held  November  12,  1908,  President  Gharies  Francis 
Adams  annomiced  in  fitting  terms  the  death  of  Daniel  C.  Oilman, 
a  corresponding  member  of  the  Society,  and  called  upon 
WilUam  W.  Crapo  to  respond. 

Mr.  Grapo  spoke  as  follows: 

Mr.  President,  —  Permit  me  to  add  a  few  words  to  what  has 
been  said  of  Daniel  Goit  Oilman.  He  was  my  college  classmate, 
and  during  our  four  years'  course  there  was  no  companionship 
more  intimate  and  no  friendship  stronger  than  that  which 
existed  between  us,  and  this  has  continued  these  many  years. 
He  was  an  excellent  scholar,  although  not  ambitious  for  the 
high  marks  necessary  to  secure  a  valedictory  honor,  an  honor 
sometimes  obtained  at  the  sacrifice  of  a  broader  education.  He 
was  alive  to  all  the  activities  of  the  college  and  the  class.  He 
was  a  steady-going,  dihgent,  well-balanced  student.  Upon 
leaving  college  he  had  in  contemplation  the  preparation  of  a 
new  English  lexicon,  a  task  which  he  thought  would  occupy 
him  many  years.  In  this  he  was  encouraged  by  Professor 
Goodrich,  the  son-in-law  of  Noah  Webster,  who  had  edited 
several  editions  of  Webster's  Dictionary.  In  pursuance  of  this 
purpose  he  came  to  Gambridge,  where  he  remained  a  year  or 
more. 

About  that  time  President  Franklin  Pierce  appointed  Thomas 
H.  Seymour,  a  respectable  lawyer  of  Hartford,  minister  to 
Russia.  Mr.  Seymour  had  served  in  the  Mexican  War  as 
colonel  of  the  Gonnecticut  regiment,  as  did  Galeb  Gushing  as 
colonel  of  the  Massachusetts  regiment,  and  Franklin  Pierce  as 
colonel  of  the  New  Hampshire  regiment.  In  the  Mexican  cam- 
paigns Golonel  Seymour  displayed  conspicuous  bravery.  On 
his  return  to  Gonnecticut  he  was  greeted  with  much  applause 
and  great  ovations.  He  was  made  governor  of  his  state  and 
was  three  times  reelected  to  that  office.  It  was  natural  that 
his  comrades  in  war,  President  Franklin  Pierce  and  Attorney- 
General  Gushing,  should  desire  for  him  further  honors.     Gov- 


8  Daniel  Coit  Gilman 

ernor  Seymour  was  not  a  diplomat  by  training  or  experience, 
and  in  going  to  his  new  post  he  desired  a  friendly  companionship 
which  might  at  times  be  of  assistance  to  him.  He  invited  two 
young  men  fresh  from  college  to  accompany  him  to  St.  Peters- 
burg. They  were  Daniel  C.  Gilman  and  Andrew  D.  White,  both 
of  whom  subsequently  became  corresponding  members  of  this 
society.  I  do  not  remember  what  official  position,  if  any, 
these  two  men  held  in  the  legation,  but  their  duties  were  not 
pressing,  and  much  of  their  leisure  time  was  devoted  to  making 
themselves  familiar  with  European  universities,  their  courses 
of  study  and  methods  of  instruction. 

How  far  this  accidental  sojourn  abroad,  undertaken  at  the 
outset  as  an  agreeable  vacation,  influenced  the  future  careers 
of  these  two  men  is  a  matter  of  conjecture.  On  their  return  to 
the  United  States  Mr.  White  went  to  Ann  Arbor,  where  he 
was  eminently  successful  as  an  instructor,  and  afterwards  he 
was  employed  by  Ezra  Cornell  in  the  formation  of  Cornell 
University.  Mr.  Gilman  went  to  New  Haven,  where  he  became 
librarian  and  held  other  offices  in  the  college,  to  the  great  satis- 
faction of  the  faculty  and  students.  Later  he  was  appointed 
president  of  the  University,  of  California,  in  which  position  he 
demonstrated  his  ability  and  attracted  the  attention  of  edu- 
cators. When  the  Johns  Hopkins  Fund  became  available,  its 
trustees,  seeking  a  suitable  person  to  execute  the  will  of  the 
donor  in  the  establishment  of  an  educational  institution, 
selected  President  Gilman.  In  preparation  for  this  task  he 
went  abroad  for  a  year  or  two,  studying  the  universities  of 
Europe,  comparing,  analyzing,  and  balancing  their  merits. 
On  his  return  to  Baltimore  he  had  in  mind  an  institution  dis- 
tinct from  any  existing  American  college  or  university,  whose 
purpose  would  be  to  furnish  to  the  graduates  of  such  colleges 
or  universities  facilities  for  advanced  study  in  special  branches 
of  knowledge.  The  success  of  Johns  Hopkins  University  is  well 
known.     It  was  essentially  the  creation  of  President  Gilman. 

The  qualities  which  led  to  his  success  were  patient,  pains- 
taking, persistent  application  and  complete  thoroughness  of 
work.  He  was  a  good  man  to  work  with.  His  enthusiasm 
inspired  his  associates;  his  example  of  untiring  devotion  to 
whatever  task  he  had  in  hand  stimulated  those  about  him. 
Whatever  rank  may  be  accorded  to  President  Gilman  in  scholar- 


Memorial  Symposium  9 

ship,  I  venture  to  say  that  few  have  surpassed  him  in  the  field 
of  investigation,  of  organization,  and  of  administration.  This 
is  shown  not  only  by  what  he  did  at  Johns  Hopkins,  but  in  the 
organization  of  the  Carnegie  Institute  and  the  management 
of  the  Peabody  and  Slater  funds  and  the  many  other  positions 
of  trust  and  service  which  were  assigned  to  him. 

He  was  a  sincere  and  unselfish  man.  He  was  prominent  in 
many  reform  movements.  He  had  no  Uking  for  controversy. 
He  relied  upon  clearness  of  statement  and  strength  of  argument, 
and  as  a  reformer  he  never  indulged  in  denunciation  of  those 
who  honestly  differed  with  him  about  methods.  His  native 
gentleness  of  spirit  and  his  sweetness  of  disposition  made  that 
impossible. 

In  any  review  of  the  life  of  Dr.  Oilman,  its  notable  feature 
must  be  the  exceptional  and  successful  service  which  he  ren- 
dered in  the  promotion  of  higher  education,  of  social  and  politi- 
cal reforms,  and  of  genuine  philanthropy. 


10  Daniel  Coit  Gilman 


Fasciculus  II 

Wm.  M.  Stewart 

law  office 

408  Corcoran  Building 

Washington 

October  26,  1908. 
E.  Cutter,  Esq.,  West  Falmouth,  Mass. 

My  dear  Cutter,  —  Your  letter  of  recent  date,  announcing  the 
death  of  Daniel  Coit  Oilman,  is  before  me. 

Few  Americans  have  lived  a  more  useful  life  than  Daniel 
Coit  Gilman.  Mr.  Gilman  was  of  the  highest  type  of  our  civi- 
hzation.     His  life  was  devoted  to  learning  and  education. 

After  our  college  days,  I  first  met  him  in  California,  where  he 
was  doing  good  work  as  president  of  the  State  University.  He 
was  next  called  to  Maryland,  where  he  laid  the  foundation  of 
that  great  institution  of  learning  known  throughout  the  country 
as  Johns  Hopkins.  His  methods  of  imparting  information,  his 
rules  for  the  government  of  institutions  of  learning,  his  incessant 
labor,  and,  above  all,  his  pure  and  unblemished  character,  have 
made  him  known  and  loved  by  millions.  The  example  of  such 
a  man  does  much,  not  only  to  mold,  but  to  popularize,  free 
government.  We  are  proud  of  him  as  the  best  type  of  American 
citizen,  and  he  will  ever  be  remembered  as  one  of  the  most 
useful  sons  of  Yale.  All  admired  him.  Those  who  knew  him 
loved  him  and  wiU  ever  cherish  his  memory. 
Yours  very  truly, 

WM.  M.  STEWART. 


Memorial  Symposium  11 

Fasciculus  III 

DANIEL  COIT  QLMAN 


BY   HOMER   B.    S PRAGUE 

Our  distinguished  classmate  was  fortunate  from  the  first. 
He  was  well  born.  In  his  boyhood  he  breathed  an  atmosphere 
remarkably  free  from  contaminating  influences.  In  his  college 
course  at  Yale,  those  of  us  who  knew  him  best  noticed  in  him  a 
dehcacy  of  speech  and  conduct,  not  so  much  the  effect  of  an 
acute  conscience,  which  may  coexist  with  much  frailty,  as  of 
an  inbred  habitual  freedom  from  temptation  to  vice.  We  can 
hardly  imagine  our  Oilman  enslaved  by  the  devils  of  appetite 
and  passion  that  drag  so  many  gifted  men  down. 

His  classmates  must  have  noticed,  too,  in  his  demeanor  an 
unusual  grace  and  poise,  a  mind  earnest  yet  calm,  judicial, 
never  intensely  partisan,  interested  in  all  that  was  good,  yet 
never  impatient  to  reform  the  world  in  a  day,  a  year,  or  a  decade, 
nor  carried  away,  as  some  of  us  were  in  danger  of  being,  by 
youthful  excitement. 

As  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Yale  Literary  Magazine,  I  came 
into  closer  relations  with  him.  More  than  before,  I  was  im- 
pressed with  his  good  sense,  fairness,  and  justice,  without  envy, 
extravagance,  or  contentiousness;  a  certain  sweetness  of  dispo- 
sition, a  disinclination  to  be  censorious,  an  unwillingness  to 
impute  wrong  motives  for  any  questionable  action.  Once, 
when  a  fellow-editor  made  a  satirical  comment  upon  some  well- 
meant  but  seemingly  injudicious  procedure,  Oilman  rebuked 
him  with  a  gentleness  that  was  not  soon  forgotten,  "  Does  this 
ironical  remark  of  yours  reveal  to  me  a  phase  of  your  character?  " 
From  that  day  the  "  charity  that  thinketh  no  evil,"  that  will 
not  impute  a  bad  motive  when,  within  the  saving  grace  of  com- 
mon sense,  a  good  one  can  possibly  be  assigned,  became  with 
his  friend  a  ruhng  principle  in  speech. 

There  were  giants  in  those  days.  Among  them  we  saw  in 
the  streets  Roger  S.  Baldwin,  Ralph  I.  Ingersoll,  and  Ex-Presi- 
dent Day.     In  the  faculty,  among  other  gifted  men,  there  was 


12  Daniel  Coit  Gilman 

the  magnificent  elder  Silliman  of  mellifluous  speech;  the  exact 
and  genial  Olmsted  ;  the  eloquent,  magnetic  Goodrich;  the 
profound  and  kindly  Porter;  the  learned  and  witty  Kingsley; 
the  manly,  great-souled  Thacher;  the  keen,  many-sided  Hadley ; 
the  beloved,  all-accomplished  Woolsey.  How  they  loom  up  in 
memory! 

"  Ever  their  phantoms  arise  before  us, 
Our  loftier  brothers,  but  one  in  blood; 
At  book  and  board  they  lord  it  o'er  us 
With  looks  of  beauty  and  words  of  good!  " 

Into  their  society  and  companionship,  Gilman,  living  in  the 
family  of  his  uncle,  Prof.  James  Kingsley,  was  early  brought, 
and  in  the  midst  of  such  influences  he  remained  the  greater  part 
of  twenty  years.  Having  gone  to  Europe  in  1853  as  attacM  to 
the  Russian  legation,  he  returned  to  America  in  1856  with 
mind  broadened  and  enriched  by  travel  and  study,  spending 
many  months  at  St.  Petersburg,  Paris,  and  Berlin.  Now  as 
librarian  at  Yale,  the  world  of  books  opened  still  wider  before 
him. 

When  the  Civil  War  flamed  forth  in  1861,  and  some  of  his 
classmates,  carried  away  by  the  heat  of  passion  or  impelled  by 
a  sense  of  duty,  quitted  their  proper  vocations,  and  for  four 
years  were  absorbed  in  the  struggles,  the  hardships,  the  sorrows, 
and  the  unedifying  experiences  of  the  sanguinary  conflict,  and 
so  lost  the  precious  opportunities  they  might  have  utilized  in 
the  cultivation  of  their  intellects,  Gilman,  '^  in  the  quiet  and 
still  air  of  delightful  studies,"  was  wisely  laying  in  ammunition 
and  accumulating  strength  and  skill  for  a  nobler  battle  than 
that  of  the  tented  field,  and  preparing  to  render  higher  service 
than  we  who  were  in  the  business  of  killing  and  getting  kiUed. 

The  chief  interest,  the  most  vital  function,  of  any  nation  is 
the  right  education  of  the  young.  More  than  any  other  Ameri- 
can institution,  with  the  possible  exception  of  Harvard,  our 
Yale  has  been  the  mother  of  teachers,  academies,  colleges,  and 
universities.  Of  the  two  hundred  classes  she  has  sent  forth, 
that  of  1852,  as  I  showed  on  our  fiftieth  anniversary,  holds  the 
highest  record  of  achievement  in  this  respect.  And  of  all  of 
our  class  who  became  instructors,  not  forgetting  Johnston, 
Brewer,  Cooper,  Salter,  Hallowell,  who  have  passed  away,  and 
some  still  conspicuous  among  the  eminent  living,  Gilman  was 


Memorial  Symposium  13 

facile  princeps.  He  was  thoroughly  versed  in  primary  and 
secondary  education,  for  he  had  been  city  superintendent  in 
New  Haven.  As  secretary  of  the  State  Board,  he  had  made  a 
careful  study  of  the  whole  school  system  in  Connecticut.  He 
was  a  rare  judge  of  men,  but  not  infallible,  for  it  was  always 
my  misfortune  to  have  my  abilities  overestimated,  and  he, 
perhaps  more  than  any  other,  made  me  principal  of  the  state 
normal  school  at  New  Britain,  headmaster  of  the  Girls^  High 
School  at  Boston,  and  president  of  the  State  University  at 
North  Dakota.  He  was  an  officer  of  the  Winchester  Astronomi- 
cal Observatory,  and  official  visitor  of  the  Yale  Fine  Arts  School. 
In  the  Sheffield  Scientific,  he  rendered  long  and  valuable  service 
as  organizer,  secretary,  and  professor  of  physical  and  political 
geography. 

He  knew  his  limitations.  He  could  not,  like  Horace  Mann, 
awaken  and  rouse  to  enthusiasm  by  fiery  eloquence  a  thousand 
teachers  and  ten  thousand  students,  nor  was  he  ready,  like 
Andrew  D.  White,  publicly  to  strike  heavy  blows  at  political 
wrongs,  defiantly  challenge  old  superstitions,  and,  cutting  loose 
from  narrowing  traditions,  endeavor,  with  Ezra  Cornell,  to 
^'  found  an  institution  where  any  student  can  find  instruction 
in  any  study."  But  it  is  safe  to  say  that  no  other  president  of 
a  new  university  ever  came  from  a  wider  educational  outlook 
or  brought  to  the  work  a  more  admirable  preparation. 

In  1870  he  was  offered  the  presidency  of  the  infant  Univer- 
sity of  California.  He  had  already  been  attracted  thitherward 
by  the  representations  of  the  greatest  of  then  living  American 
divines,  Horace  Bushnell,  who,  after  careful  and  extended 
explorations,  had  selected  with  exquisite  judgment  the  un- 
equaled  site  at  Berkeley.  For  two  years,  while  the  new  insti- 
tution continued  to  occupy  the  old  quarters  of  the  College  of 
California  in  Oakland,  and  while  he  was  still  on  duty  at  Yale, 
he  was  studying  deeply  the  general  subject  of  universities  and 
the  particular  situation  on  the  Pacific  coast.  In  1872  came  a 
second  and  more  urgent  invitation.  He  accepted,  and  on  the 
7th  of  November,  at  Oakland,  delivered  his  inaugural  address. 
The  subject  was  ''  The  Building  of  the  University."  The  wis- 
dom accumulated  during  twenty-five  years  of  study  and  obser- 
vation went  into  that  magnificent  address.  It  is  a  masterpiece. 
I  have  seen  nothing  of  the  kind  finer.  As  I  read  it,  his  great- 
ness grows  upon  me. 


14  Daniel  Coil  Gilman 

Extraordinary  difficulties,  complications,  and  oppositions 
arose,  but  he  had  laid  the  foundations  deep  and  solid.  With 
tact  and  skill,  and  with  a  nimbleness,  persistency,  and  per- 
suasiveness that  proved  successful  at  last,  he  solved  the  threat- 
ening problems  that  fronted  him  like  hydras;  energetically  but 
with  suavity  he  cut  the  Gordian  knots  that  could  not  be  untied; 
iron  hand  in  velvet  glove,  as  far  as  possible  without  wounding, 
he  pushed  aside  the  disintegrating  hostile  forces,  which,  if 
allowed  to  remain,  would  have  wrecked  the  new  institution. 
For  two  years  and  a  half,  October,  1872,  till  March,  1875,  it 
was  a  strenuous  struggle,  a  continuous  battle.  Of  course  he 
%^^']  did, incur  the  woe  denounced  upon  him  of  whom  all  men  speak 


/v 


wen,  for  enemies  were  not  altogether  silenced,  though  for  the 
most  part  won  over,  disarmed,  or  crushed.  Victorious,  he  was 
yet  weary  of  the  incessant  wrestling. 

So  he  informed  me  at  an  interview  to  which  he  invited  me 
in  New  York,  in  which  he  unfolded  some  of  his  plans,  and 
cautiously  sounded  me  as  to  a  possible  professorship  in  some 
department  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University. 

He  had  more  faith  in  himself  and  in  me  than  I  had.  I  was 
not  inclined  to  a  life  work  mainly  of  research,  nor  alive  to  the 
importance  of  the  projected  enterprise  at  Baltimore.  I  held 
that  the  proper  and  principal  business  of  a  university,  and, 
indeed,  of  every  school  for  the  young,  as  illustrated  in  some  of 
the  famous  universities  of  the  old  world,  and  the  work  in 
America  of  Mann,  Hopkins,  Wayland,  Woolsey,  Eliot,  Andrew 
White,  and  other  great  educators  in  their  respective  institutions, 
should  be  to  gather  multitudes  of  students,  in  them  inculcate 
right  principles,  inspire  lofty  sentiments,  and  build  up  noble 
characters.  Of  course  a  little  had  been  done  in  the  direction 
of  original  investigation  at  Yale,  Harvard,  and  elsewhere,  and 
I  remembered  hearing  our  Woolsey  express  an  ardent  desire 
that  there  might  be  more,  as  in  the  great  foreign  universities. 
But  in  America  the  men  and  means  were  wanting;  elementary 
instruction  must  monopolize  the  time  and  energies  of  pro- 
fessors; deep  research  must  either  be  omitted  altogether  or 
relegated  to  the  background. 

In  this,  as  in  every  important  undertaking,  Gilman  showed 
consummate  wisdom.  He  argued  that  there  were  already 
colleges  enough  blossoming  out  into  so-called  universities,  and 


Memorial  Symposium  15 

universities  enough  to  supply  the  demand  for  ordinary  colle- 
giate instruction.     Why  build  another  of  the  old  sort? 

The  good  old  Quaker  had  bequeathed  three  and  a  half  million 
dollars.  He  left  his  trustees  free,  and  they  left  Oilman  free. 
The  new  plan  was  simplicity  itself.  Research  was  the  watch- 
word, deep,  prolonged,  thorough;  delving  and  sifting  to  find 
out  the  exact  fundamental  truth  in  every  field  of  intellectual 
activity;  to  discover  and,  when  discovered,  publish  bottom 
facts  and  ultimate  laws;  and  so  to  begin  enlarging  in  many 
directions  forever  the  boundaries  and  the  stores  of  knowledge  — 
this  was  his  grand  aim.  This  scheme  was  far  broader  than  that 
of  Bacon  as  set  forth  in  the  "  New  Atlantis,"  for  his  lordship's 
wonderful  vision  of  "  Solomon's  House  "  appears  to  have  con- 
templated no  researches  other  than  those  in  natural  history  and 
physical  science. 

Not  less  simple  than  this  aim  of  Oilman  was  the  chief  means 
of  its  accomplishment.  ^'  We  two  were  the  faculty,"  he  is 
reported  to  have  said  of  himself  and  Oildersleeve.  Five  other 
distinguished  professors  he  selected  as  heads  of  departments, 
each  in  the  prime  of  Ufe,  each  an  authority  and  enthusiast  in 
his  chosen  field,  each  to  continue  his  favorite  researches,  and 
each  to  be  "  guide,  philosopher,  and  friend  "  to  students  already 
post-graduates,  but  aspiring  to  the  still  higher  degree  of  the 
German  doctorate  of  philosophy. 

Another  new  feature:  The  fruits  and  tests  of  original  re- 
search, manifested  in  theses,  were  to  be  published  in  university 
journals,  as  of  chemistry,  mathematics,  history,  philology,  etc. 
To  these  were  superadded  twenty  fellowships,  which  should 
supply  to  the  most  successful  candidates  the  means  of  further 
prosecuting  their  studies  for  one,  two,  or  three  years. 

Incidental  and  strictly  preparatory  to  all  this,  was  a  collegiate 
department  of  rather  higher  grade  than  any  of  the  then  existing 
colleges,  inasmuch  as  it  omitted  the  usual  studies  of  the  fresh- 
man year.  As  new  features,  he  skillfully  arranged  parallel 
elective  groups  like  those  at  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School;  he 
established  freedom  as  to  residence,  study  hours,  chapel  and 
church  attendance.  Best  of  all,  perhaps,  every  undergraduate 
was  to  have  one  member  of  the  faculty  as  an  interested,  vigilant, 
and  sympathetic  counselor. 

So,  almost  wholly  without  buildings,  apparatus,  libraries, 


16  Daniel  Coit  Gilman 

works  of  art,  museums,  or  anything  to  strike  the  eye  or  the 
imagination,  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  was  begun.  It 
reminds  us  of  President  Garfield's  ideal  college,  ''a  log  in  a 
forest,  with  Mark  Hopkins  at  one  end  and  myself  at  the  other  "! 

It  had  at  first  less  than  a  hundred  students.  At  the  end  of 
ten  years  there  were  nearly  two  hundred  in  the  university  and 
one  hundred  and  thirty  in  the  college.  There  are  now  six  or 
seven  hundred  in  all.  Johns  Hopkins'  graduates  are  in  demand 
as  professors  everywhere. 

But  the  uplift  to  post-graduate  instruction  in  America  is 
perhaps  the  most  beneficial  result  of  all.  In  1850,  in  all  our 
colleges,  there  were  but  8  post-graduate  students  pursuing  still 
higher  studies;  in  1875  there  were  400;  in  1890,  5,668;  now 
there  must  be  nearly  10,000. 

The  perplexities  that  often  beset  American  colleges  and  uni- 
versities were  not  in  evidence.  The  "  accursed  problem,"  as 
Burns  styled  it,  "  of  making  one  pound  do  the  work  of  five," 
the  hard  necessity  that  turns  the  chief  executive  from  an  edu- 
cator into  a  sturdy  beggar  for  funds  to  keep  the  poor  thing 
alive;  the  narrow  rivalry  that  sometimes  springs  up  between 
well-meaning  but  ambitious  departments  or  professors;  the 
competition  of  other  institutions  appealing  for  patronage  or 
public  favor;  the  sharp  antagonism  of  conscientious  religious 
zealots;  the  attempts  at  exploitation  of  the  whole  or  a  part  of 
the  funds  in  behalf  of  pohtical  or  semi-political  organizations; 
the  investigations  by  officious  legislative  committees  eager  to 
criticise  in  the  interest  of  economy;  the  colhsions  between 
'Hown  "  and  "gown";  the  craze  for  overdone  rough  and 
tumble  athletics,  intercollegiate  brutahty,  the  "  hazings,"  the 
"  rushes,"  the  sometimes  poisonous  politics  of  secret  fraterni- 
ties; from  these  and  many  other  distressing  annoyances  the 
new  university  and  its  president  were  mercifully  free. 

But  it  must  not  be  supposed  for  a  moment  that  he  had  an 
easy  task.  The  toil  of  heart  and  brain  he  underwent  in  origi- 
nating, building,  controlling,  and  perfecting  that  vast  and  won- 
derful structure  was  almost  incredible.  Only  those  who  have 
had  to  do  with  the  beginnings  of  new  educational  institutions 
are  likely  to  grasp  appreciatively  that  threefold  plan,  —  of 
excavating  deeper  in  many  directions  for  treasures  hitherto 
hidden,  of  sending  forth  to  hundreds  of  great  schools  specialists 


Memorial  Symposium  17 

trained  in  the  processes  of  working  in  new  mines  of  thought, 
and  of  arousing  scores  of  universities  to  estabUsh  and  maintain 
post-graduate  courses  of  their  own;  and  all  this  not  for  a  genera- 
tion, but  to  go  on  forever,  "  enlarging,"  to  use  the  language  of 
Lord  Bacon,  "  enlarging  the  bounds  of  human  empire  to  the 
effecting  of  all  things  possible." 

We  may  well  be  amazed  at  his  other  multitudinous  activities , 
both  before  and  after  he  resigned  the  presidency  in  1901,  at 
the  age  of  seventy.  There  is  not  time  here  and  now  to  more 
than  mention  some  of  the  most  important,  such  as  his  editorial 
work  in  Norton's  Literary  Gazette;  his  speech  at  Manchester, 
England,  in  1853,  on  primary  and  secondary  education  in 
America;  his  correspondence  while  abroad  with  prominent 
American  newspapers;  his  cooperation  in  publishing  the 
Connecticut  Common  School  Journal,  Guyot's  Geographies  and 
Wall  Maps,  Appleton's  American  Encyclopedia,  Webster's 
Revised  Dictionary;  his  address  at  the  opening  of  Sibley 
College,  also  at  the  bicentennial  celebration  of  Norwich,  Conn., 
also  on  the  "  Launching  of  a  University  "  (1906) ;  his  discourse 
on  ''University  Problems";  his  biographies  of  President 
Monroe  and  Professor  Dana;  his  editorship  of  the  works  of 
Lieber,  of  Dr.  Thompson,  and  De  Tocqueville's  "  Democracy 
in  America";  contributions  to  Johnson's  Cyclopedia;  editor- 
ship of  the  New  International  Encyclopedia;  services  as  United 
States  commissioner  to  the  French  exposition,  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Awards  at  the  Atlanta  exposition  (1895) ,  mem- 
ber of  the  Venezuela  Commission  (1896),  member  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Historical  Society  and  of  the  British  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science,  president  of  the  American  Bible 
Society,  also  of  the  Baltimore  Municipal  Art  Society,  also  of 
the  American  Oriental  Society,  also  of  the  Baltimore  Charity 
Organization,  also  of  the  Civil  Service  Reform  Association,  also 
of  the  trustees  of  the  John  F.  Slater  Fund,  also  of  the  Carnegie 
Institution  ;  also  joint  trustee  of  the  Winchester  Observatory, 
the  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  and  the  Peabody  Education  Fund, 
of  which  he  was  vice-president ;  vice-president  also  of  the  Ameri- 
can Archaeological  Society;  and  last,  but  far  from  least,  head 
director  of  the  magnificent  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital,  to  which 
the  medical  world  is  unspeakably  indebted. 

A  fiery  mind  is  pretty  sure  to  burn  up  a  frail  body.     The 


18  Daniel  Coit  Gilman 

hardiest  physique  will  wear  out  under  incessant  toil.  Every 
man  of  talent  has  his  option,  either  to  shine  brilliantly  and  die 
soon,  or 

"  To  husband  out  life's  taper  at  the  close, 
And  keep  the  flame  from  wasting  by  repose." 

If  it  was  ambition  that  impelled  our  classmate  to  remain  too 
long  in  the  focus  and  full  blaze  of  glory,  it  was  an  honorable 
ambition,  but  let  us  give  him  credit  for  a  nobler  motive  than  a 
ruling  desire  of  fame. 

Let  me  call  attention  to  one  prominent  aim  of  his  which 
nearly  all  his  eulogists  seem  to  have  overlooked.  In  his 
inaugural  address  (1876),  speaking  of  the  educational  discus- 
sions prevalent  in  all  civilized  communities  at  the  close  of  the 
hundredth  year  of  the  republic,  these  words  are  central:  "  It 
means  a  wish  for  less  misery  among  the  poor,  less  ignorance  in 
the  schools,  less  bigotry  in  the  temple,  less  suffering  in  the 
hospital.'*  Hear  Andrew  D.  White's  testimony  written  last 
October:  ^'  When  I  went  with  him  to  Europe  in  1853,  his 
main  interest  was  in  ragged  schools  and  the  bringing  of  educa- 
tion practically  within  the  reach  of  the  poorest  classes." 
White  adds:  "  I  have  known  him  fifty-five  years,  and  I  have 
never  known  a  day  during  that  whole  period  when  his  thoughts 
were  not  upon  some  enterprise  for  the  good  of  his  fellow-men/' 
May  22,  1907,  he  wrote  to  us  of  his  deep  interest  in  the  Slater 
Fund  for  the  education  of  the  humblest  of  Americans,  the 
colored  freedmen.  Last  October  the  superintendent  of  the 
Johns  Hopkins  Hospital  said  in  his  memorial  address,  "  Gilman 
came  often  to  the  hospital  before  breakfast,  and,  on  occasion, 
spent  a  night  here,  and  this,  too,  when  burdened  with  university 
duties.  .  .  .  His  kindness  of  heart  and  keen  sympathy  with 
the  poor  and  friendless  led  him  to  modify  many  stringent  regu- 
lations then  generally  in  force  in  other  hospitals."  What  is 
this  but  the  spirit  of  Him  who  gave  as  proof  of  his  Messiahship, 
*^  The  blind  receive  their  sight,  and  the  lame  walk,  the  lepers  are 
cleansed,  and  the  deaf  hear,  the  dead  are  raised  up,  and  "  — 
crown  of  crowns  —  "  the  poor  have  the  gospel  preached  to  them^'f 
In  the  presence  of  such  greatness  and  tenderness,  how  the  ex- 
ploits of  warriors  and  the  triumphs  of  politicians  sink  into 
insignificance ! 


Memorial  Symposium  19 

Another  strange  omission  by  his  encomiasts :  They  make  no 
mention  of  the  vast  service  he  rendered  to  the  greatest  cause 
that  for  several  years  past  has  occupied  the  attention  of  the 
civiUzed  world,  —  international  arbitration.  On  the  31st  of  May, 
1905,  at  the  Lake  Mohonk  Conference,  he  suggested  the  im- 
portance of  a  systematic  effort  in  all  colleges  and  universities 
to  promote  the  study  of  a  possible  peaceful  solution  of  all  inter- 
national disputes.  Two  days  later  he  was  made  chairman  of 
a  committee  of  six,  of  which  our  most  eminent  living  diploma- 
tist, Andrew  D.  White,  was  a  member,  to  formulate  a  plan  for 
securing  concerted  efforts  among  undergraduate  students  for 
the  study  and  discussion  of  this  great  subject.  The  plan  met 
with  immediate  and  extraordinary  success.  At  the  next  annual 
Mohonk  Conference,  June  1,  1906,  he  reported  that  one  hundred 
and  fifteen  institutions  had  taken  favorable  and,  in  many  cases, 
important  action.  His  report  the  following  year,  May  23, 
1907,  showed  an  increase  to  one  hundred  and  forty.  At  the 
Mohonk  Conference  last  June,  about  two  hundred  universities 
and  colleges  and  very  many  schools  of  lower  grade  were  shown 
to  be  actively  engaged  in  the  work.  It  seems  likely  to  become 
general  in  schools  for  secondary  and  higher  education.  Its 
importance  in  the  near  future  can  hardly  be  overestimated. 

Swedenborg  tells  us,  **  In  heaven  the  angels  are  always  ad- 
vancing toward  the  spring-time  of  their  youth,  so  that  the 
oldest  angel  appears  the  youngest."  But  such  a  life  as  Gil- 
man's  shows  that  we  need  not  wait  for  translation  thither;  all 
along  it  flowered  out  in  consummate  beauty  and  immortal 
youth  till  its  very  close  on  earth. 


20  Daniel  Coit  Gilman 


Fasciculus  IV 


New  York,  November  3,  1908. 
My  dear  Cutter, —  Your  letter  of  27th  ult.  came  to  this  address 
before  I  returned  to  the  city  from  my  summer  home  in  Connecti- 
cut. This  will  explain  the  tardiness  of  my  reply  to  your  sug- 
gestion of  a  "  symposium  "  of  class  tributes  to  our  recently 
deceased  and  lamented  classmate,  Gilman.  I  do  not  quite 
understand  the  scope  of  the  proposed  tributes,  nor  the  mode 
of  combining  and  using  them  when  contributed.  Evidently 
they  must  be  very  brief  if  intended  for  publication  in  any  form. 
Such  necessarily  would  be  anything  I  can  say  on  the  subject 
specially  assigned  to  me,  viz.,  that  of  the  cumulative  honors 
of  LL.D.  conferred  upon  him.  I  have  kept  no  trace  or  record 
of  these  scholastic  degrees,  hence  am  not  able  to  name  the 
sources  nor  enumerate  the  specific  achievements  on  which  they 
were  based.*  My  own  impression  is  that  these  degrees,  which 
in  most  other  cases  are  given  in  recognition  of  eminence  in  some 
particular  field  of  scholastic  or  literary  labors,  were  in  Oilman's 
case  founded  on  a  broader  view  of  his  all-around  characteristics 
as  an  educational  organizer,  with  practical  business  judgment 
combined  with  highly  developed  literary  ability.  The  degree 
of  LL.D.  in  itself,  as  now  used,  has  generally  no  reference  to  any 
prominence  in  legal  learning,  but  is  adopted  as  an  expression  of 
the  highest  academic  appreciation  of  good  service  in  any  of  the 
higher  ranges  of  scholarly  work,  and  sometimes  for  eminent 
public  service  not  strictly  scholarly.  In  any  of  these  applica- 
tions the  titles  and  the  honors  implied  were  worthily  bestowed 
on  our  classmate.  To  those  of  us  who  remember  Gilman  in  his 
undergraduate  days,  his  subsequent  career  was  but  a  develop- 
ment and  fulfillment  of  the  characteristics  manifest  in  the 

*  Since  this  was  written  I  have  ascertained  that  the  honorary  degree  of  LL.D.  was 
conferred  upon  Gilman  by  no  less  than  ten  educational  institutions,  including  the  four 
leading  universities  of  the  United  States.  Thb  is  a  remarkable  record,  perhaps  not 
equaled  in  number  in  any  other  instance  in  this  country  or  elsewhere.  Doubtless  each 
of  these  honorary  degrees  was  based  upon  certain  specific  phases  of  the  recipient's 
many-sided  work  in  the  educational  field,  which  in  its  range  afforded  abundant  cause 
for  multiform  recognition.  It  may  be  added  in  this  connection,  and  as  evidence  of 
Oilman's  social  cosmopolitanism,  that  he  was  a  member  of  six  of  the  higher  order 
of  clubs  in  different  localities,  each  of  a  distinctively  literary  caste.  Probably  some  of 
these  memberships  were  also  honorary. 


Memorial  Symposium  21 

college  student.  Hence  his  great  success  in  later  years  has  been 
no  surprise  to  his  college  mates.  This  success  is  so  fully  estab- 
lished and  so  permanently  recorded  in  actual  achievement  that 
neither  the  giving  nor  the  withholding  of  honorary  titles  could 
add  to  or  detract  from  its  far-reaching  and  beneficial  influence. 
Certainly  no  words  of  feeble  eulogy  are  needed  from  any  of  the 
few  survivors  of  those  undergraduate  days  of  promise  to  extol 
or  magnify  the  fruition  so  widely  recognized  by  the  world  at 
large. 

Very  truly  yours, 

GEO.  A.  WILCOX. 
To  Ephraim  Cutter,  M.D.,  Sec'y. 


22  Daniel  Coit  Gilman 

Fasciculus  V 

Harvard  University,  Cambridge. 
S*  April  29,  1909. 

■'  My  dear  Sir,  —  President  Gilman  and  Johns  Hopkins  Univer- 
sity were  fortunate  in  that  the  university  was  able  to  control 
a  large  hospital,  in  immediate  connection  with  which  its  medi- 
cal school  could  be  carried  on.  This  fortunate  condition  has 
never  obtained  at  the  Harvard  Medical  School.  The  univer- 
sity is  dependent  on  other  boards  of  trustees  for  its  cHnical 
facilities.  This  is  a  great  disadvantage,  but  we  have  some  hope 
that  it  is  about  to  be  overcome. 

Very  truly  yours, 

CHARLES  W.  ELIOT. 
Dr.  Ephraim  Gutter. 


Memorial  Symposium  23 


Fasciculus  VI 

Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  May  8, 1909. 

Dr.  Ephraim  Cutter,  West  Falmouth,  Mass. 

Dear  Dr.  Cutter,  —  At  various  times  during  my  life  in  Europe 
after  leaving  college  I  met  Oilman  and  came  into  close  relations 
with  him.  Indeed,  on  our  first  journey  to  Europe  we  were 
cabin  mates  together,  and  during  our  subsequent  stay  in  London 
and  Paris  were  room  mates  for  some  weeks.  Various  things 
we  saw  together,  but  our  paths  diverged  somewhat,  since  he 
was  devoted  to  popular  education  and  I  could  not  resist  the 
fascinations  of  sightseeing.  It  was  very  interesting  to  see  how 
naturally  at  that  period  he  took  his  place  among  leaders  and 
how  highly  he  was  appreciated  by  them,  among  others  by 
Cobden,  Bright,  and  Lord  Goodrich.  Indeed,  the  first  two 
insisted  on  his  addressing  with  them  the  great  educational  meet- 
ing at  Manchester. 

Several  years  later  I  met  him  delightfully  in  Switzerland, 
interesting  as  ever,  full  of  thoughtful  discussion  upon  every- 
thing we  saw. 

In  the  early  days,  first  of  Cornell  and  later  of  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  I  saw  him  often,  and  one  thing  astonished  me. 
There  was  not  only  sound  thought,  but  there  was  at  times  a 
very  striking  originality  in  his  views  as  to  what  was  desirable 
in  what  was  called  in  those  days  ^'  the  new  education."  He 
abounded  in  fruitful  suggestions,  and  he  certainly  had  a  most 
remarkable  ability  in  the  choice  of  those  who  were  to  cooperate 
with  him  in  university  work. 

Very  noteworthy  was  his  visit  to  BerUn  during  the  second 
period  of  my  official  fife  there.  The  impressions  made  by  him 
upon  the  foremost  scholars  living  in  that  city,  and,  indeed,  upon 
leading  men  of  affairs,  was  deep.  He  was  at  that  time  visiting 
sundry  institutions  in  the  city  and  its  neighborhood  and  famil- 
iarizing himself  with  various  fields  of  scientific  observation  in 
view  of  his  presidency  of  the  Carnegie  Institution,  and  their 
opinions  of  him  as  expressed  to  me  afterward  were  everywhere 
most  favorable.     He  seemed  to  me  at  his  very  best. 


24  Daniel  Coit  Gilman 

We  were  both  of  us  certainly  greatly  pleased  when  it  turned 
out  that  President  Cleveland  had  appointed  us  as  colleagues 
in  the  Venezuela  Commission  in  1895.  His  habit  of  close  and 
careful  work  and  his  early  geographical  studies  came  in  most 
usefully  during  this  whole  period.  My  duty  being  in  the  line 
of  historical  work,  we  were  especially  thrown  together,  and  I 
always  prized  my  discussions  with  him. 

Our  last  meeting  was  in  Rome  during  the  closing  days  of 
May  last  year.  He  was  as  kindly  and  in  every  way  delightful 
as  ever,  but  clearly  somewhat  weary.  He  seemed  slightly 
depressed  and  easily  fatigued.  I  remember  with  especial 
pleasure  a  day  passed  by  us  together  under  excellent  auspices 
in  the  Forum  among  the  more  recent  excavations,  and  espe- 
cially those  which  had  brought  to  view  the  House  of  the  Vestals. 
Our  last  hours  together  were  passed  when  he  dined  with  me  on 
the  24th  of  May.  He  was  still  cheery  and  kindly,  sitting  under 
the  trees  in  the  garden  of  the  Quirinale  Hotel  during  a  lovely 
day.  He  was  as  joyous  and  hearty  as  in  his  college  days,  and 
he  discussed  various  Italian  matters  with  as  much  interest  as 
at  any  period  in  his  life.  I  have  a  feeling  of  gratitude  that 
these  last  days  which  we  passed  together  were  in  every  way  so 
delightful  and  only  deepened  the  happy  impressions  made  upon 
me  by  our  earlier  life  together. 
I  remain. 

Yours  faithfully, 

AND.  D.  WHITE. 


Memorial  Symposium  25 


Fasciculus  VII 

John  C.  Thomas 
Room  1068,  Calvert  Building 
Baltimore 

July  6,  1909. 
Dr.  E.  Cutter,  West  Falmouth,  Mass. 

Dear  Sir,  —  Your  letter  of  inquiry  for  some  details  of  Johns 
Hopkins  not  yet  published  was  duly  received,  and  I  have  jotted 
down  a  few,  as  they  have  occurred  to  me  in  the  intervals  of 
business  occupation.  I  hope  they  may  be  of  some  use  to  you. 
I  believe  them  to  be  strictly  correct,  having  had  first-hand 
opportunity  to  learn  them  from  his  associates,  and  having  been 
myself  in  contact  with  him. 

Sincerely  yours, 

JOHN  C.  THOMAS. 

Johns  Hopkins  was  born  of  very  respectable  Quaker  parent- 
age May  19,  1795,  in  Anne  Arundel  County,  Maryland.  Though 
he  did  not  retain  through  life  the  membership  with  the  Friends 
acquired  by  birth,  he  attended  their  meetings  quite  regularly 
on  Sundays  as  long  ashehved,  and  was  a  regular  contributor. 
Farm  life  was  too  slow  for  the  ambitious  boy,  and  acting,  it  is 
said,  on  his  mother's  sage  remark,  "  My  son,  if  thee  wants  to 
make  money,  thee  must  go  where  money  is,"  he  came  to  Balti- 
more and  entered  the  wholesale  grocery  and  commission  house 
of  his  cousins,  T.  W.  and  G.  T.  Hopkins.  In  a  few  years  he 
went  into  business  on  his  own  account  and  soon  distinguished 
himself  for  his  shrewdness  and  courage. 

He  had  none  of  the  unscrupulous  cunning  that  has  charac- 
terized so  many  of  the  more  modern  financiers  and  manipu- 
lators. The  business  of  that  day  was  conducted  on  long  credits; 
merchants  in  buying  their  goods  would  give  notes  payable  in 
six,  twelve,  and  eighteen  months,  and  the  country  merchants  to 
whom  the  goods  were  sold  had  to  give  long  credits  to  the  farmers. 
Money  was  scarce  and  high,  collections  were  slow  and  often 
difficult.  A  buyer  might  be  perfectly  honorable  in  his  inten- 
tions, and  yet  if  he  did  not  exercise  good  judgment  as  to  the 
solvency  of  his  customers,  he  would  ultimately  fail  himself  and 
drag  others  down  with  him. 


26  Daniel  Coit  Gilman 

Johns  Hopkins  had  the  rare  instinct  of  knowing  whom  to 
trust  and  whom  to  pass  by.  His  endorsement  on  a  note  came 
to  mean  not  only  that  he  guaranteed  to  pay  it,  if  needs  be,  but 
also  it  was  a  quasi  certificate  of  the  business  ability  of  the 
maker  and  was  worth  considerable  in  that  way.  He  was  accus- 
tomed to  charge  well  for  his  endorsement,  or  would  often  dis- 
count a  note  himself.  In  this  way  he  saved  many  a  firm  from 
bankruptcy  when  he  was  satisfied  that  it  really  had  the  assets, 
and  only  needed  time  to  collect  them.  In  times  of  financial 
stress  he  came  to  be  a  tower  of  strength.  In  the  early  days  of 
the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railroad,  when  its  credit  was  exhausted 
and  many  feared  it  would  never  be  finished,  its  stock  got  very 
low.  Johns  Hopkins  bought  largely,  loaned  it  money,  and 
helped  to  reform  the  management.  He  eventually  realized 
great  profit  in  the  advance,  as  the  railroad  was  brought  to 
completion  and  extended  to  point  after  point  far  beyond  the 
original  plan. 

The  state  of  Maryland,  about  the  same  period,  loaned  its 
credit  to  several  enterprises  of  public  improvement  that  were 
imexpectedly  long  in  being  completed,  and  its  finances  became 
so  involved  that  there  was  talk  of  repudiation,  after  the  example 
of  several  southern  states.  Johns  Hopkins,  however,  had  faith 
that  Maryland  would  fulfill  all  its  obligations,  and  bought 
largely  of  its  bonds  at  the  low  prices  then  current.  This  trans- 
action also  brought  him  large  profit  and  helped  to  build  up  his 
fortune,  which  was  in  those  days  considered  a  great  one. 

He  attributed  his  remarkable  success  to  an  overruling  Provi- 
dence, and  remarked  to  his  confidential  friend  and  adviser  that 
he  beUeved  that  his  wealth  was  given  to  him  for  a  good  purpose, 
and  that  he  was  trying  to  dispose  of  it  with  that  end  in  view. 


Memorial  Symposium  27 

Fasciculus  VIII 

OLD  AND  NEW  * 


WILLIAM   OSLER,  M.D. 
Regius  Professor  of  Medicine  in  the  University  of  Oxford,  Oxford,  England 


A  UNIQUE  opportunity,  indeed,  was  the  founding  of  the  Johns 
Hopkins  Hospital.  That  those  of  us  intrusted  with  its  organi- 
zation should  have  won  your  esteem  and  should  have  been 
adopted  by  the  city  and  by  the  state  is  by  far  the  best  testi- 
monial of  our  character  and  of  our  work.  Considering  the  cir- 
cumstances, it  might  easily  have  been  otherwise.  But  the 
success  of  that  experiment  must  not  be  attributed  altogether 
to  the  professional  side.  Such  men  as  Francis  T.  King,  Judge 
Dobbin,  Dr.  Carey  Thomas,  and  Francis  White  were  equal  to  the 
occasion,  and  we  owe  much  to  their  wisdom  and  good  manage- 
ment. But  to  one  man  more  than  all  others  I  would  like  to 
express  my  personal  thanks, —  Daniel  C.  Oilman,  whose  name 
will  be  forever  associated  with  fundamental  reforms  in  Ameri- 
can educational  methods.  And  at  the  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital 
we  shall  always  cherish  his  memory  for  the  work  done  in  con- 
nection with  its  organization,  and  for  his  unfailing  interest  in 
the  work  of  the  medical  school.  When  I  heard  of  his  happy 
death,  the  words  of  Elisha  rose  to  my  lips:  "  My  father,  my 
father,  the  chariot  of  Israel,  and  the  horsemen  thereof."  It  is 
one  of  my  deep  regrets  to  miss  on  this  occasion  the  greetings  of 
a  man  whose  encouragement  and  support  meant  so  much  in 
my  life  here. 


*  Anniial  oration  on  the  occasion  of  the  opening  of  the  new  building  of  the  Medical 
and  Chirurgical  faculty  of  Maryland,  May  13,  1909. 


28  Daniel  Coit  Oilman 

Fasciculus  IX 

CONTRIBUTION  OF  THE  SECRETARY 

Daniel  Coit  Oilman  entered  Yale  in  1848  and  graduated  in 
1852.  Yale  is  noted  for  its  class  spirit,  and  it  seems  fit  in  a 
class  obituaiy  to  take  the  Yale  College  view  of  him  and  of  all  its 
graduates ;  that  Yale  simply  laid  the  foundations  of  future  use- 
fulness, a  jpou  sto  on  which  to  build  a  good  character  for  church 
and  state.  We  may  speak  of  him  as  in  college  and  then  of  him 
as  fruiting,  like  apples  of  gold  in  pictures  of  silver. 

Some  of  His  Collegiana 

Went  all  through  the  whole  course  with  no  tobacco,  cards, 
oaths,  impurity,  nor  liquors. 

Was  in  the  second  division,  of  which  at  the  time  of  his  death 
there  were  eight  or  nine  survivors,  out  of  a  total  of  fifteen  of 
the  class. 

Out  of  fifty-five  prizes  awarded  to  twenty-eight  of  his  class, 
he  took  four. 

Belonged  to  J  A' as  freshman;  J  J  ^  as  junior;  Skull  and 
Bones  and  <^  /^  A'  as  senior. 

Was  a  member  of  the  College  Congregational  church. 

At  Junior  exhibition  he  was  a  manager  and  had  a  part,  '^  Dis- 
ceptatio  Latina,"  with  Safford,  and  a  dissertation,  "  The 
Poetical  in  Our  College  Life,"  the  only  one  person  given  two 
parts. 

At  the  Wooden  Spoon  exhibition  he  'had  a  poem,  "  The 
Prosaical  in  Our  College  Life  ";  a  colloquy,  "  The  Gobblers 
Gobbled,"  with  A.  Bigelow  and  Cutter,  and  another  colloquy 
with  A.  Bigelow,  '*  Meeting  of  the  Society  of  the  Veteran 
Antiquarians."  He  had  thus  three  out  of  seventeen  parts 
performed  by  twelve  performers  whose  names  were  given.  At 
commencement,  in  1852,  he  was  the  twenty-fifth  of  fifty-three 
honored  with  parts,  and  had  a  dissertation  on  "  Anesthesia." 

He  was  mildly  athletic,  being  purser  of  the  Atlanta  Boat  Club, 
1852,  and  one  of  those  who  voted  in  the  majority  not  to  accept 
the  Sophs'  challenge  to  football,  the  idea  being  that  it  was,  as 


Memorial  Symposium  29 

Seropyan  at  the  meeting  said,  "  a  barbarous  custom,  unworthy 
of  gentlemen,"  an  unpopular  idea  then  as  now. 

He  thought  well  of  athletics  as  an  exercise,  and  of  fun  as 
equally  necessary.*     (Elizabeth  Oilman.) 

He  certainly  was  close  in  touch  with  the  faculty,  as  all  through 
college  he  boarded  with  his  uncle.  Prof.  J.  L.  Kingsley,  LL.D., 
known  best  as  ''  Uncle  Jimmie  ";  and  as  his  brother  Edward, 
Yale  1843,  was  tutor,  he  could  not  help  this  intimacy. 

The  following  extract  from  the  album  of  one  of  his  classmates, 
placed  against  his  beautiful  lithograph,  gives  a  good  picture  of 
his  social  college  character: 

Yale  College,  May  25,  1852, 

Friend  C , — I  sit  down  to  write  on  your  autograph  leaf, 

with  the  thoughts  of  last  Friday  night  still  fresh  in  my  mind, 
when,  with  a  few  other  "  Beethoveners,"  we  roused  fair  ladies 
from  their  slumbers  with  the  serenaders'  songs.  Not  only  your 
clear  and  pleasant  voice,  but  your  constant  flow  of  cheerful 
spirit  have  added  zest  to  many  such  occasions  and  enhanced 
the  ^'  Poetry  of  our  College  Life  "  (his  Junior  exhibition  sub- 
ject), but  our  intercourse  has  not  been  confined  to  scenes  like 
this.  We  have  been  together  in  more  serious  hours,  and  in 
graver  as  well  as  gayer  moments  have  harmonized  together. 
I  shall  think  of  you  always  as  singing  your  way  through  life's 
short  course,  and  when  such  songs  are  over,  may  you  join  in 
nobler  strains  above. 

I  am  sincerely  your  friend  and  classmate, 

Daniel  C.  Oilman. 

He  was  not  a  singer,  but  liked  serenading  his  lady  friends, 
who  enjoyed  it  much  more.  The  "  serious  hours  "  referred 
to  class  prayer  meetings,  receptions  given  to  Him  who  "  made 
the  stars  also,'' — even  Arcturus,  which  if  placed  where  the  sun 
is,  would  be  about  as  near  to  us  as  Venus,  and  our  earth  would 
instantly  vanish  into  vapor,  they  tell  us!  Was  it  not  well  to 
meet  with  One  of  such  glorious,  astounding  power?  We  think 
he  thus  got  dynamis  that  made  him  such  a  kinetic  energy  for 
good  in  the  world.  No  good  reason  why  such  meetings  are 
not  popular.  Out  of  six  Doctors  of  Laws  of  1852,  four  were 
attendants  of  prayer  meetings  and  the  other  two  were  church 

*  President  Crapo  says:  Seropyan's  speech  carried  the  day  by  a  close  vote.  But 
McConmick,  Sill,  and  others  made  a  petition  to  accept,  and  got  signers  enough.  Crapo 
and  others  who  voted  against  it  joined  in,  but  we  were  beatl  The  Secretary  knew 
nothing  of  it  for  many  years  afterwards. 


30  Daniel  Coit  Gilman 

members  where  prayer  meetings  are  not   so  much  made  of. 
Surely  God  honors  those  who  honor  him! 

"  The  Remarkable  Coeval  Education  of  Great  Future 
University  Presidents  in  1848-1853  " 

This  was  the  subject  of  a  very  able  paper  by  our  classmate, 
Rev.  Dr.  Jacob  Cooper,  a  man  of  whom  it  was  said,  if  all  the 
Hebrew  Bibles  in  the  world  were  destroyed,  he  could  rewrite 
another.  Of  course  he  referred  to  Gilman  and  President  W.  P. 
Johnston,  of  Tulane  (he  should  have  added  our  Dr.  H.  B. 
Sprague,  the  president  of  a  university,  and  protagonist  of  large 
United  States  summer  schools),  also  Hon.  Andrew  D.  White, 
Yale  1853.  He  might  have  brought  in  President  Eliot,  Har- 
vard 1853.  Such  a  quintet  of  future  organizers  of  university 
education  was,  he  said,  unparalleled,  and  time  sustains  this 
estimate.  But  they  could  not  have  done  their  great  work  and 
gained  their  great  reputations  unless  the  Lord  had  lavished  on 
our  nation  riches  of  agriculture,  mining,  inventions,  immigra- 
tion, colossal  railroad  enterprises,  utilizing  of  gigantic  natural 
material  resources,  increase  of  population  and  wealth  in  mar- 
velous ways,  so  that  our  national  wealth  is  now  estimated  at 
one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  billions  of  dollars ! 

To  Him  be  all  the  praise!  Credit  should  be  given  also  to 
Messrs.  Cornell,  Johns  Hopkins,  Tulane,  and  the  multitudinous 
donors  of  Harvard  and  Yale,  when  the  names  of  these  institu- 
tional presidents  are  spoken  of.  The  eleemosynary  idea  of 
Harvard,  for  example,  is  strongly  impressed  when  its  living 
graduates  are  called  to  contribute  for  the  benefit  of  President 
Eliot  after  his  resignation.  Rightly,  too,  save  as  to  his  new 
religion.  There  is  no  reason  why  the  histories  of  such  careers 
should  not  include  appreciations  of  those  great  donors  who 
made  such  histories  possible  by  their  money  and  impossible 
without  them. 

With  Gilman  in  Yale  after  Graduation 

The  words  of  ex-President  Woolsey  form  an  academic  appre- 
ciation entirely  satisfactory,  specially  to  those  who  were  stu- 
dents under  him,  to  this  effect,  "  Gilman  is  the  most  promising 
and  satisfactory  young  educationalist  I  know  of.'^  Dear  old 
president,  how  good  of  you  to  say  so ! 


Memorial  Symposium  31 

Was  His  Life  One  Trialless  Round  op  Success  ? 

He  would  not  have  been  human  were  it  so.  There  was  once 
a  time  when  ruin  impended  to  Johns  Hopkins  University  be- 
cause of  failures  in  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railroad  securities. 
All  honor  to  the  public-spirited  Baltimoreans  who  contributed 
funds  to  tide  over  this  emergency!  Oilman  was  fortunate  in 
the  primary  foundation  of  seven  millions  of  dollars,  and  more 
fortunate  in  the  timely  gifts  of  his  noble  benefactors!  Not 
every  classmate  of  his  was  so  fostered  in  his  financial  straits. 
An  official  writes  that  his  salary  as  president  of  Johns  Hopkins 
was  not  over  ten  thousand  dollars  per  annum. 

Did  he  reaUze  all  his  expectations  that  he  raised  in  his  Balti- 
more inaugural  address?  He  said,  "  We  welcome  any  new 
ideas,  no  matter  whence  they  come."  But  he  did  not  receive 
the  following  ideas  when  presented  by  Judge  Dobbin,  one  of  the 
Johns  Hopkins  trustees:  The  foodal  treatment  of  tuberculosis; 
the  removal  of  albuminuria  by  food,  etc.  He  showed  the  writer 
a  receptacle  containing,  he  said,  five  hundred  frogs,  yet  he  never 
demonstrated  Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell's  syntheses  of  cataracts  in 
frogs  by  sugar  endosmosis,  nor  the  foodal  treatment  of  heart 
disease,  of  which  he  died  himself,  etc. 

Surely  he  must  have  been  hampered  somewhere,  as  he  was 
also  on  medical  matters  in  the  Carnegie  Foimdation.  He  was  a 
man  of  his  words,  and  if  he  did  not  realize  them  it  must  have 
been  because  of  environments  beyond  his  control.  Had  he 
pushed  the  open-air  food  treatment  mentioned  in  20  b.c.  by 
Celsus,  and  in  1794  by  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush,  in  tuberculosis,  he 
would  have  excelled  his  present  fame.  His  words  at  one  of  our 
quinquennial  reunions  voiced  a  "  mene,  mene,  tekel  upharsin  '' 
estimate  as  to  his  own  and  our  doings:  "  None  of  us  has  done 
anything  to  last,  or  added  to  the  knowledge  of  mankind.'' 
This  utterance  was  passed  over  and  nothing  said  to  the  contrary, 
as  an  after-dinner  controversy  is  out  of  place.  The  universal 
comments  since  his  death  are  the  furthest  from  his  being 
weighed  in  the  balance  and  found  wanting,  a  matter  not  to  be 
discussed  here ;  but  this  is  far  more  creditable  to  him  than  if  he 
had  proudly  exalted  himself  above  his  class  and  not  classed 
himself  along  with  them  in  temporahty  and  fruition. 

Good  for  His  Yale  Spirit 
"  Genial,  scholarly,  courtly,  in  touch  with  the  best  and  domi- 


32  Daniel  Coit  Gilman 

nant  influences  of  the  nation,  Dr.  Gilman  brought  honor  to 
any  institution  he  served.  And  he  in  turn  esteemed  it  an  honor 
that  he  was  president  of  the  American  Bible  Society."  — 
Memorial  Minute  of  the  Managers,  1908. 

Why? 

Because  had  there  been  no  Bible  there  would  have  been  no 
Yale,  nor  Cahfornia,  nor  Johns  Hopkins  universities.  No  place 
for  them  in  Bibleless  lands ! 

Because  it  is  the  deathless  book.  —  Rev.  Dr.  D.  0.  Mears. 

Because,  if  all  accept  the  authenticity  of  Tacitus,  Homer, 
Virgil,  and  Herodotus  on  the  testimony  of  eleven  or  twelve 
contemporaneous  authors  of  antiquity,  then  why  reject  the 
Bible  with  eleven  or  twelve  hundred  or  more?  —  Prof.  C.  E. 
Stowe. 

Because  Josephus  says  practically  that  had  not  the  writers 
of  the  Bible  told  the  truth,  they  would  have  been  put  to  death 
by  the  Jewish  laws. 

Because  the  Bible  has  been  translated  into  some  five  hundred 
languages  and  dialects. 

Because  no  other  book  has  been  published  by  different  socie- 
ties specially  organized  for  the  purpose  and  in  such  enormous 
numbers  and  for  so  many  years. 

Because  in  the  year  ending  July  1,  1903,  one  Bible  house 
pubUshed  and  sent  away  ten  million  English  copies.  Ten 
miUion  Bibles  in  one  year,  when  the  United  States  Congressional 
Library  has  taken  more  than  one  hundred  years  to  collect  less 
than  two  million  volumes.* 

Because  Jonathan  Edwards,  Yale  1720,  Academic,  the  fifth 
in  a  class  of  ten  graduates,  is  probably  the  greatest  of  all  Yale 
alumni,  and  this  came  from  the  Bible. 

Because  Hiram  Bingham,  Yale  1853,  one  of  the  greatest 
modern  Yalesians,  as  he  went  among  cannibals,  reduced  their 
language  to  writing,  translated  the  whole  Bible  and  saw  it 
through  the  press  —  the  John  EUot  of  the  Gilbertese  —  and  as 
with  the  Bible  he  lifted  them  up  to  a  new  and  higher  life  and 
gave  them  all  their  literature! 

*  The  British  Museum,  it  is  said,  has  four  millions  of  volumes,  requiring  forty-eight 
miles  of  shelves.  At  this  rate  the  issue  above  named  would  occupy  one  hundred  and 
twenty  miles  of  shelving,  or,  in  President  Eliot's  sixty-inch  library  estimate'  one  hundred 
and  ninety  miles! 


Memorial  Symposium  33 

Because,  take  away  all  the  Bibles  in  the  world,  there  would 
be  no  place  for  universities  such  as  our  deceased  classmate 
founded,  as  storehouses  of  food  of  the  spiritual  kingdom.* 

Notable  Admission.  ^'  In  a  popular  weekly,"  says  The 
Christian y  of  London,  ''  the  question  has  been  mooted  as  to 
what  single  book  would  be  the  best  for  a  man  to  have  with 
him  —  a  work  of  which  he  would  not  tire  —  supposing  he  were 
cast  for  a  year  upon  a  desert  island.  As  may  be  imagined,  the 
replies  were  varied  enough,  but  one  answer  is  very  significant: 

'  .  .  I  am  a  rationalist,  an  agnostic,  a  freethinker.  I  make 
this  statement  with  all  seriousness  that  should  accompany 
expression  on  such  an  important  subject,  that  if  I  were  stranded 
on  an  island  and  doomed  to  live  in  solitude,  the  one  book  that 
I  should  wish  to  have  by  me  for  constant  study  and  reference 
would  be  the  English  Bible.  For  I  know  of  no  book  that  has 
so  helped  me  in  the  past  and  promises  to  be  a  steadfast  guide 
in  the  future.  After  years  of  study  the  profundity  of  its 
psychological  menage  astounds  the  intellect,  and  the  apparent 
sincerity  that  resounds  through  all  its  chapters  adds  a  fervent 
tone. 

^' '  Besides,  for  simplicity  and  beauty  of  word  and  phrase,  it 
undeniably  holds  the  monopoly  of  all  the  most  trenchant,  the 
most  ennobhng,  and  the  most  inspiriting  of  the  verbal  possi- 
bilities of  the  English  language.'  " 

Charles  Dudley  Warner  says  a  fair  knowledge  of  the  Bible  is 
in  itself  almost  a  liberal  education. 

Partial  List  op  Offices  and  Memberships 

Administrator  remarkable  for  selecting  and  dealing  with  men. 

Attache  United  States  Legation,  Russia. 

Auspicer  of  first  annual  meeting  of  American  Librarians. 

Author,  "  The  Launching  of  a  University." 

Biographer  of  James  D.  Dana. 

Biographer  of  James  Monroe. 

Chairman  Committee  of  Awards,  Atlanta  Exposition. 

Chairman  Committee  of  Six  at  Lake  Mohonk  to  report  a  plan  of 
systematic  effort  in  all  colleges  and  universities  for  the  study  of  a 
possible  peaceful  solution  of  all  international  disputes. 

*  Note  that  being  a  Bible  man,  prayer-meeting  attendant,  lover  of  music,  poet, 
virgin,  an  oathless,  temperance  man  did  not  prevent  Gilman  from  attaining  the 
highest  position  in  life,  where  he  served  Church  and  State  gloriously  according  to  the 
idea  that  Yale  was  founded  to  attain  in  its  graduates. 


34  Daniel  Coit  Gilman 

Chairman  Walter  Reed  Yellow  Fever  Commission. 

Citizen,  public  spirited  and  a  splendid  type. 

Co-editor  Norton's  Literary  Magazine. 

Co-editor  Yale  Literary  Magazine. 

Commissioner,  Baltimore  City  Charter  and  public  schools. 

Commissioner  Paris  Exposition,  1855. 

Commissioner,  Venezuela. 

Contributor  to  Appleton's  Encyclopedia. 

Contributor  to  Johnson's  Encyclopedia. 

Cooperator  in  publishing  Connecticut  Common  School  Journaif 
Guyot's  Geographies  and  Maps. 

Corresponding  member  of  the  American  Geographical  Society. 

Corresponding  member  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science  and  of  many  other  scientific  and  historical  societies. 

Corresponding  member  of  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 

Director  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital. 

Editor  De  Tocqueville's  "  Democracy  in  America." 

Editor  works  of  Lieber. 

Editor  New  International  Encyclopedia. 

Editor  Rev.  Dr.  J.  P.  Thompson's  works. 

Editor,  1864-5-6,  Yale  Obituary  Records. 

Facile  princeps  in  a  class  of  educators  at  Yale  in  1852-3. 

Fellow  American  Academy. 

Fellow  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

Foremost  in  every  good  word  and  work. 

Founder  of  the  Baltimore  Civil  Service  Reform. 

Founder  of  the  Baltimore  League. 

Founder  of  the  Baltimore  Municipal  Art  Society. 

Founder  of  the  Baltimore  New  Mercantile  Library. 

Founder  of  the  Charity  Organization  of  Maryland. 

Good  of  his  fellow-men  his  aim. 

Great  taskmaster,  with  mild  but  fatal  insistence. 

Helped  support  himself  in  college. 

Incorporator  General  Board  of  Education  Commission. 

International  Arbitrator. 

Librarian  and  assistant  librarian  at  Yale. 

LL.D.s  ten,  the  largest  number  in  Yale  and  Harvard  catalogues; 
also  in  the  world  (President  Northrup  at  Yale's  two  hundred  and 
fiftieth  anniversary). 

Member  American  Geographical  Society. 

Member  of  American  Philosophical  Society. 

Member  of  Antiquarian  Society,  Worcester,  Mass. 

Member  of  Council,  Yale  School  of  Fine  Arts. 


Memorial  Symposium  35 

Member  of  New  York  Academy  of  Science. 

Mercantiler  in  his  father's  store. 

Naturalizer  of  the  American  idea  of  a  university. 

Officer  of  PubHc  Instruction  in  France. 

Officer  of  Winchester  Astronomical  Observatory. 

Orator,  Norwich  bi-centennial. 

Orator,  Manchester,  England,  on  primary  and  secondary  American 
education. 

Orator  before  the  New  Haven  Historical  Society  in  the  address  on 
the  removal  of  Yale  from  Saybrook. 

Orator,  "  The  Story  of  Fifty  Years  in  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School.'' 

Orator,  Yale  bi-centennial ;  address  on  Science  and  Letters  in  Yale. 

Orator  semi-centennial  at  Wisconsin  University. 

Organizer  Johns  Hopkins  Medical  School. 

Organizer  W^alter  Reed  Commission. 

Organizer  Johns  Hopkins  Press. 

Organizer  Sheffield  Scientific  School, 

President  American  Bible  Society. 

President  American  Oriental  Society. 

President  American  Social  Science  Association. 

President  Association  of  Colleges  in  the  Middle  States. 

President  Carnegie  Institution. 

President  Linonia  Society. 

President  National  Civil  Service  Reform. 

President  "  Science,"  a  newspaper  association. 

President  J.  F.  Slater  Fund. 

President  University  of  California. 

President  Johns  Hopkins  University. 

President  Emeritus  of  Johns  Hopkins  University. 

Presidencies  declined:  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology; 
Army  Investigation  Commission. 

Private  teacher  at  New  Haven. 

Professor  Physical  and  Political  Geography,  Yale. 

Reviser  Webster's  Dictionary. 

School  visitor,  New  Haven,  Corm. 

Secretary  Connecticut  Board  of  Education. 

Securer  of  large  subscriptions  for  Sheffield  Scientific  School,  Johns 
Hopkins  University  and  Medical  School. 

Superintendent  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital. 

Superintendent  Johns  Hopkins  Medical  School. 

Trustee  of  General  Board  to  provide  Education  throughout  the 
American  Union. 

Trustee  of  Peabody  Educational  Fund. 

Trustee  Peabody  Institute,  Baltimore. 


36  Daniel  Coit  Gilman 

Trustee  Pratt  Free  Library. 

Trustee  Samuel  Ready  Orphans'  School,  Baltimore. 
Vice-President  American  Archeological  Institute. 
Vice-President  Peabody  Educational  Fund. 
Voyager,  ten  African  and  European  tours. 

List  op  Clubs 

1.  Authors',  New  York. 

2.  Century,  New  York. 

3.  Grolier,  New  York. 

4.  University,  New  York. 

5.  Cobden,  London. 

6.  Cosmos,  Washington,  D.  C. 

7.  Johns  Hopkins,  Baltimore. 

8.  University,  Baltimore. 

Ten  LL.Ds. 

Highest  academic  honors  post-graduate. 

So  far  as  Yale  and  Harvard  are  concerned,  Gilman  heads  the 
record,  imless  the  writer  has  made  a  mistake.  Lord  Kelvin 
comes  next,  with  nine  LL.D.s.  Out  of  fifteen  LL.D.s  conferred 
on  six  of  Yale  1852,  two  thirds  are  his. 

Ex-President  White,  Yale  1853,  follows  well,  with  six  LL.D.s, 
while  President  Porter  had  three.  President  Woolsey  three. 
President  Day  one,  Jonathan  Edwards  none.  The  class  of 
1852  feels  proud  of  this  highest  distinction  of  Gilman  over  all 
other  classes  in  the  world  (President  Northrup),  which,  if  value- 
less, Gilman  himself  would  never  have  officially  conferred  nor 
received.  Nor  would  they  be  programmed  at  commencements 
and  centennials,  nor  inked,  nor  spaced  in  the  quinquennial 
catalogues.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  they  are  worthily 
bestowed  in  some  cases,  but  not  in  Oilman's  — 

Because,  with  considerable  pains  to  get  the  reasons,  they  are 
as  follows: 

(1)  Harvard,  1876.     No  records  kept. 

(2)  St.  John's,  Maryland,  1876,  being  the  oldest  academic 
institution  in  Maryland,  thought  it  a  fitting  recognition  of  the 
youngest  to  bestow  such  a  degree  upon  the  man  who  had  been 
chosen  to  direct  the  course  of  the  new  and  richly  endowed 
university,  and  time  has  justified  the  tribute.*    ^ 

*  St.  John's,  Fordham,  N.  Y.  (addressed  by  mistake),  Vice-President  said,  "I  re- 
gret to  state  that  we  have  not  the  honor  of  claiming  Daniel  Coit  Gilman  as  one  of  our 
degree  men." 


Memorial  Symposium  37 

(3)  Columbia  University,  1887.  "  President  of  Johns  Hop- 
kins University  only/' 

(4)  Yale,  1889.  No  record.  Rev.  Dr.  Palmer,  Fellow,  says: 
"  No  doubt  his  services  to  science  and  to  education  and  his 
position  in  a  sister  university  were  considered,  but  the  facts 
connected  with  the  vote  have  quite  faded  out  of  my  memory." 
The  practice  of  having  a  public  orator  to  present  the  candidate 
had  not  then  commenced. 

(5)  University  of  North  Carolina,  1889.  Centennial  cele- 
bration. No  specific  record.  Doubtless,  both  on  account  of 
his  scholarly  achievements  and  the  high  position  he  held  as 
president  of  Johns  Hopkins  University. 

(6)  Princeton,  1896.  For  his  eminent  services  in  the  devel- 
opment of  American  university  education,  and  particularly  for 
his  great  work  in  the  organization  and  administration  of  Johns 
Hopkins  University. 

(7)  University  of  Toronto,  1903.     No  record. 

"  It  was,  I  am  quite  satisfied,  his  high  standing  in'  the  aca- 
demic world."  —  Registrar. 

(8)  University  of  Wisconsin,  semi-centennial  jubilee,  1904. 
President  Van  Hise:  *'  Daniel  Coit  Oilman,  successively  pro- 
fessor at  Yale,  president  of  the  State  University  of  California, 
first  president  of  Johns  Hopkins  University,  first  president  of 
the  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington;  for  leadership  in 
education  and  especially  for  the  development  in  America  of  two 
institutions  of  the  highest  type  committed  primarily  to  scholar- 
ship and  research,  on  behalf  of  the  faculty  and  regents  I  have 
the  honor  to  confer  upon  you  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  of 
the  University  of  Wisconsin." 

(9)  WilUam  and  Mar>-  College,  1906. 

"  A  recognition  of  his  abiUty  and  merit." 

(10)  Clark  University,  1905.     "As  the  creator  of  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  he  was  the  leader  in  the  great  university^ 
movement  in  this  country,  and  raised  the  level  of  all  academic 
work." 

Query.  —  Could  he  have  "  created  "  it  without  Johns  Hop- 
kins? 

Ask  people  how  far  they  can  see,  and  probably  ninety  per 
cent  will  say,  "  Perhaps  ten  miles."  But  they  see  the  moon, 
237,000  miles,  and  the  sun,  93.000,000  miles,  distant.     So  Saint 


38  Daniel  Coit  Gilman 

Paul  addresses  an  epistle  to  the  saints  in  Ephesus  (made  by 
grace).  Thus  eyesight  and  privileges  are  not  fully  estimated 
because  Christians  are  not  now  called  saints  as  they  were  in  the 
first  century. 

Dr.  Sprague,  ex-president  of  a  university,  said  money  had 
been  offered  him  for  degrees. 

But,  as  said  before.  Oilman's  unusual  degrees  were  honestly 
received,  and  we  should  estimate  them  at  their  real  value  and 
not  as  perfunctory. 

Never  a  Military  Man 

Entangled  with  more  than  sixty  vocations  and  avocations, 
how  could  he?  The  wonder  is  that  he  filled  as  many  positions 
and  places  as  he  did ! 

President  Oilman's  Aims 

In  his  inaugural,  February  22,  1876,  he  said,  *'  The  new  uni- 
versity was  to  develop  character,  to  make  men."  A  Yale  idea, 
always  found  where  there  is  a  true  Yale  man. 

"  Another  great  aim  was  to  stand  for  the  doctrine  that 
religion  claims  to  interpret  the  '  words  of  Ood  '  (as  Johns  Hop- 
kins, the  Quaker,  said)  and  science  to  reveal  his  laws.  Inter- 
preters may  blunder,  but  truths  are  immutable,  eternal,  and 
never  in  conflict." 

For  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  he  chose  the  motto,  "  The 
truth  shall  make  you  free."  Upon  these,  the  words  of  the  Oreat- 
est  Teacher,  Yale,  too,  was  founded;  Harvard  also.  Congrega- 
tionally  and  Quakerly,  Dr.  Oilman  acted  as  a  minister,  for  many 
years  conducting  public  worship  in  chapel. 

Johns  Hopkins  charged  his  trustees  ''  to  provide  for  the  soul 
and  give  the  earthly  body  a  spiritual  and  intellectual  character 
that  should  administer  to  the  eternal  part  of  man  while  not 
neglecting  the  temporal."  Fortunate  his  trustees  were  in 
having  Oilman  to  carry  out  this  Yale  idea  rather  than  that  now 
so  much  made  of  at  Yale, —  the  excessive  exaltation  of  the 
temporal  in  spectacular  meets  of  thirty  to  forty  thousand 
people.     Thank  Ood  for  this  work  of  Oilman ! 

"  He  was  indifferent  to  nothing  which  has  to  do  with  human 
welfare  ";  hence  his  many  avocations  and  affiliations.  ^ 


J 


Memorial  Symposium  39 

Hospitable  he  wa^  to  students  and  "  always  inspiring  confi- 
dence and  manifesting  kindness  towards  those  who  served  as 
teachers  under  him,  thereby  securing  a  service  that  cannot  be 
bought." 

No  Lowering  of  Standards 

A  splendid  idea  for  church  music  as  shown  long  ago  by  the 
great  Horace  Bushnell. 

Ten  Voyages  to  Europe  and  Africa 

The  old  idea  was  that  presidents  of  the  United  States  and 
colleges  should  not  travel  about  much.  Presidents  Oilman  and 
Roosevelt  broke  this  rule  and  showed  in  no  way  did  it 
interfere  with  their  usefulness.  Rather,  it  increased  it  and 
doubtless  prolonged  their  lives. 

Though  his  withdrawal  was  complete,  and  he  said  to  his  suc- 
cessor, "  I  am  out  of  it,  I  cannot  help  you,"  there  was  no  lack 
of  friendliness,  but  the  ties  of  friendship  grew  stronger  than  / 
ever.  "  In  financial  storms  he  never  flinched.  He  was  no 
fair  weather  leader.  He  created  an  atmosphere  good  to  live  in 
—  salutary  and  stimulating.  The  success  of  the  university 
traces  back  to  this  clear,  invigorating  atmosphere." 

May  these  ideals  never  be  lost  sight  of  I  May  his  successors  to 
the  remotest  ages  exalt  them,  adhere  to  them,  and  so  continue 
to  bless  the  world  to  the  honor  and  glory  of  God  and  Yale  1852, 
academic. 

251  West  81st  St.,  New  York, 

and 

West  Falmouth,  Mass.,  August  27,  1909. 


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